All Decisions Lead to Madness
by Spicers Apple
Summary: Stein tries to find a way to cure his Madness, finding that Kid's Reaper blood might contain the answers he needs and starts experimenting on him. Stein enjoys the boy much more than he should, the young test subject quickly becoming the mad doctor's object of desire. Ch.3- Everyone begins to act out of the ordinary. Why are so many people angry? What could be going on... SteinxKid
1. The Experiment is Successful

Full-size cover pic here: (delete the _ to see)

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I took two existing pictures (one of Stein and one of Kid) and combined them. I also made them look really grotesque!

Chapter 1 cover pic: (I didn't draw this but added some things to it like the white rings and line, and of course the text)

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And the alternate cover pic here:

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I altered Kid's eye to align it with my story's plot. I also filled in his pupil and made it black.

This story takes place some time after the anime, when no one has to worry about the threat of a new Kishin for a while. This also takes place before the part in the manga where Kid succumbs to Madness, so this is an alternate version of what ends up happening later on.

Listening to/watching this awesome MedusaxStein AMV while I type... ht_tp:_/_/_www._repeatmyvids._com_/_watch?v=9EtE03oS-rU_&kmdom=_youtube

-x-

Professor Stein hastily shuffled around his laboratory, combining several liquids together until they turned into a bright, glowing green color after he mixed them with a stirring rod. The stark, blindingly-white light in the basement gleamed across Stein's glasses, obscuring his eyes as he tilted his head back and grinned with ire amusement. He looked haunted as he held his hands up in the air, back trembling with excitement when he bent backward and laughed like a madman.

"I did it! I finally did it! If it wasn't for you and your suffering, I never would get better! Thank you, _so _much! Ahahahaa!"

Slowly, Stein came out of his delerium and his eyes traveled to the wide beaker containing the miracle cure. He drew some of it into a syringe, making sure there were no air bubbles present, then he immediately stabbed himself in the arm with it, knowing the exact location of his most-used veins by heart. He was a doctor. A _mad _doctor. And he had a certain young Grim Reaper to thank for giving him the ability to be sane again, as fleeting and temporary as it may be...

-x-

Death the Kid was laying on his back, in a red pool. He felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness, eyes falling shut and opening again in differing intervals. The water would drain away into nothingness, only to fill back up again and drain again endlessly. He didn't know where one day ended and night began, one hour passing by or twenty-four hours. It seemed like a truly endless process, especially now. He didn't mind it though, as his body and soul bore itself into a comfortable stasis, slipping away into a semi-conscious slumber.

This particular time, his hands floated above the water on the surface, his head underwater except for his nose, eyes seeing nothing since they were closed. He heard a dull voice, the sounds echoing unrecognizably below the water. All he could tell was it was a man's voice.

Kid's hands twitched, finally becoming aware again. They slipped under the red wine-laced water, bubbles from his moving hands stirring up a pink froth as his fingers found chains wrapping around his torso and legs. He moved his fingers up to his neck, feeling how tightly he was bound to the back of the tub. He felt small waves starting to splash against his thighs and wisp his hair around in the water. Pale, ghostly hands maneuvered around the chains, massaging whatever exposed bits of flesh they could as they moved up his legs, down his arms and finally up his chest. Kid shivered and breathed bubbles out of his mouth, furrowing his brow as he struggled to open his eyes.

Suddenly the hands clasped around Kid's face and jerked his head up out of the water. Kid's mouth opened and he sputtered, water flowing out of his mouth while he accidentally swallowed some of it.

"Did it work this time? How do you feel?" Two thumbs moved across Kid's eyelids, the high concentration of alcohol on them burning his eyes. With slow, groggy difficulty, Kid opened them unevenly. He stared at the doctor in a blurred haze, revealing a new dark third ring in his irises. The scarred figure in front of him smiled, eyes hidden behind the white light bouncing off his eyeglasses.

"Perfect. I have succeeded." The figure came closer to him, joining him in the water, laying over him, face a few centimeters away from his. The sudden movement made Kid's body sway back and forth in the water. "You have now synchronized with my Madness. You've progressed wonderfully in these past few days." The figure licked up the side of Kid's face, gleefully lapping up the excess fluids on the test subject's cheek that hadn't dripped off his face yet. He soon became drunk as he greedily drank from the boy's unblemished body, the mad doctor raking his lusted eyes over pure flesh, pulling Kid's face as far out of the water as the chains would allow.

He licked down his neck before turning around and pressing Kid's legs tightly against the sides of the tub as far out of the water as possible. He delicately licked across the sides of Kid's creamy thighs in well-worn patterns as he caressed the undersides of them at the same time, knowing full-well how this would affect the young Reaper below him. Just as planned and expected- the doctor grinned devilishly ear-to-ear as he felt movement beneath the water. Kid's head tilted back and fell mostly under the water again, his mouth wide and breathless. His eyes burned again, becoming momentarily sightless when they made direct contact with the water. A few seconds later his head floated back up to the surface, only his ears and hair continuing to be submerged.

The simple sound the boy emitted was sensuous music to the doctor's ears, the _only _sound he heard him speak for the last several hours. It drove the doctor into an ecstasy. He turned around again to face Kid, his hands knowingly sliding up the boy's legs and stopping short of his hips. He grinned lecherously, leaning down over him, pushing Kid's hips farther underwater, loving the sight of the way the test subject's body reacted to his touches. The doctor's half-lidded eyes focused on Kid's lips, taking in the sight of the five black stitches that appeared and drew their way down Kid's upper lip, over his bottom lip, and ended at the bottom of his chin. His mouth was sewn shut. It was a shame really, to not be able to hear the boy's cries anymore. Oh well, no matter.

The doctor's eyes traveled farther up still to Kid's eyes, absorbing the purple glow added to the new burnt gold third ring. "I am amazed at your progress, Kid. Not even Spirit came this far without breaking." Kid's eyes slightly moved down instead of staring at the ceiling, otherwise motionless. He looked right at his captor, expression dark and lost in a sea of emotions the doctor's soul linked to his through their Chain Resonance.

"Aren't you pleased at your success? I know I am... I'm proud of you." The bespectacled man lifted his head up and kissed the top of Kid's, smoothing out the boy's drenched hair with a hand as he did so.

"Let me reward you..." Then his hands reached down into the water, pulling Kid's hips up as Stein's head moved lower and lower, lips opening, coming to play with...

-x-

Kid's pencil lead snapped and his eyes widened. A blush spread across his whole face and he coughed to clear his throat, feeling highly uncomfortable. He was thankful Patty didn't notice or question his demeanor when she leaned over him, staring at his paper in front of them on the desk in the classroom. She had a stupid grin on her face, yelling "Giraffe~! Giraffe!" in a cute voice, coloring along Kid's random scribbles with a yellow crayon. Her head was underneath Kid's, the hair from the back of her head tickling against his neck. He couldn't help but inhale the scent of the shampoo she used that morning. It's not like he wanted to, she was _right there_, but she didn't notice as her arm flew all across his paper. He wasn't going to turn it in anyway; he couldn't write his name perfectly. Again.

Kid closed his eyes. Strawberries. His mind flew to a different time and place not in the present. Presents. Candy. Chocolate. Chocolate-covered strawberries. Stein's smile, holding them out to him. Kid's body covered in melting chocolate, drizzling down his body as he fell into a pool of intoxicatingly warm, pink water filled with wine. Floating in strawberries.

Kid's eyes flew open and that certain ring of gold drew its way around Kid's eyes, the new middle ring growing dull and dark before finally encasing itself in that purple hazy glow. His gaze lowered to offset the possibility of questioning eyes happening his way.

-x-

"...And that concludes the careful dissection of the once-endangered Wood Stork species." Stein looked up from the bloody bird splayed across his desk and stared right at Kid as Kid blushed and cleared his throat. Kid didn't notice. Stein smiled, his usual creepily-entertained grin cracking his lips apart and making him seem demonic. That wasn't unusual for Stein. But Kid being so distraught and nervous _was_.

"What do you mean once-endangered, Professor Stein?" Tsubaki asked, raising her hand in the air. She sat a row directly behind and above Kid. Stein looked up at her; the seat to her left was empty once again, as usual. One of these days Stein would teach Black Star what happens when he skips class so often...

Stein put his scalpels down on the desk.

"Well, Tsubaki, you may not have realized this, but the wood stork species is now extinct."

Tsubaki's hand wilted in the air and her eyes widened as the rest of the class started yelling in confused furor.

"A-are you serious, Professor Stein?"

He waited a few tortuous seconds to reply, instead scanning his eyes over all the students that were suddenly creating chaos. He saw how their soul wavelengths suddenly went erratic and _crazy _with fright and worry, not a single rational thought present in their minds.

Stein enjoyed the sight.

"Well, actually, there is about five... _thousand _left in the wild." Stein pushed his chair back and it rolled into the chalkboard. He kicked his feet up on the desk, then moved his head and arms back behind him. He linked his hands together by way of his fingers and rested the back of his head against his palms, while the backs of his hands touched the chalkboard. The front wheels of the chair quickly lifted up in the air. It was only a matter of time before he fell over. A very, _very _short amount of time.

"How could you... how could you _say _that? I really thought that was the last bird alive!" Tsubaki yelled, sounding on the verge of crying. Stein glanced at her, light angling off of one of the lenses of his glasses. A few seconds later she put her face in her hands and ran down the stairs and out of the room crying. Stein's eyebrows rose as he watched her leave.

"Maka, can you make sure she turns in her assignment tomorrow?" Maka nodded from the left side of the room.

And then Stein's chair collapsed and he fell on his ass.

-x-

**A few notes, I don't know for sure if the students have assigned seats in class, so I just put them wherever. **

**Tsubaki was acting a bit out of character... or maybe not? I thought it would be funny for her to do that XD**

**This chapter is double the size of what I usually write, mostly because I had to include the classroom scene where I can't focus only on Stein and Kid. Hopefully these parts are as interesting as the rest of the story and make it more realistic :)**

**Also, about the stitches on Kid's mouth- I know that in the manga they aren't exactly stitches because he can still talk, but my story is taking that idea in a different direction so bear with me~**

**Read and review, guys! I want to see if it's worth continuing this story. Even anonymous reviews will be accepted! So say whatever you want 8D**


	2. Class is Dismissed

Stein stood up and picked up the chair. Strangely, even when he fell he still made it look stylish. His eyes traveled to the right of the room, watching Ox Ford walk down the steps and come to his desk. Stein rolled the chair back to its proper spot and sat down in it again, sensing Ox's soul as well for the hell of it. It was intelligent, confident. A lot like Maka's. Apparantly he wasn't perturbed by the possible revelation of his teacher killing off the last bird in a species. Or maybe one of his students finally started to see through his jokes and tricks. Thankfully it was only the _smartest _person in the class who started to catch on, but still...

Damn.

"Anyone else done with their assignment yet? You can put it on my desk and give me something to do." Stein said with a bored expression, masking his disappointment. He tapped the desk with his hand a few times where Ox Ford laid down his assignment. Ox started to turn around and go back to his seat, but he noticed something about the bird and stopped instead, turning back to face Stein. He lifted and held his glasses higher up on his face with his thumb and forefinger while he peered down into the open cavity of the bird curiously.

"Professor, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while... what do you do with the bird and its organs after you dissect them? Surely you don't just throw away the dead carcasses."

A lopsided smirk tore across Stein's face, finding yet another golden opportunity to scare someone else. Ah, such a succulent, irresistable moment. He looked right at Ox with a crazed look in his eyes and leaned over the desk and the bird, his face pushing ominously close to Ox's.

"What _else_? _**I**_ **_eat them_**. Sometimes I find it tastes better if I **_eat them_ _entirely raw- blood, feathers and all_**."

If Stein's words and the way he kept slowly inching closer while he punctuated each of them were poisonous, Ox would have fallen ill and died on the spot. Sweat beaded on his face and slipped down his cheeks, sudden chills shivering down his back. He looked at the scientist in terror through his swirl-printed glasses, which hid his pupils that were growing larger in fright by the second. He fumbled a few times for words but found none, making random flustered sounds instead.

Stein kept hold of his demented expression while his soul secretly quivered in squeamish joy at how easily he broke the strongest student. Blue lines of anguish fell down Ox's face as he took a step back and turned around, heading back up the steps to his seat like a zombie, the utter humanity being squeezed out of him.

Ah, that's better.

No one remained that was in their right mind.

Perfect.

Stein did another quick once-over of the students, chuckling to himself when no one ventured away from their desks to get anywhere near this crazy guy, lest he bite their hands off or something equally traumatising. It was already bad enough with everyone being fifty feet away from him.

_'Alright, that's enough fun for now. I don't want these kids to have premature heart attacks before they're twenty.'_ Stein looked at Kid, who seemed to be struggling with something, his gaze lowered and his shoulders raised in a guarded fashion as his body was tumultuously shaking, trembling; he was trying to block something out of his mind.

Stein frowned slightly and allowed a concerned look to cross his face as he lifted his hand up to turn the bolt in his head a few times. During the third turn, suddenly Kid looked up with eyes wide, right at Stein, as his eyes returned to normal, the purple rings erasing themselves from his presence. He had a shocked expression then and he touched his fingers to his face, cautiously prodding along the bottoms of his eyelids as he blinked in pain several times.

_'Hmm. So the process is still uncomfortable for him. A new problem I need to iron out.'_

After gazing at Kid for a few more seconds, Stein generally looked toward the center of the room, not really at anyone in particular. His normal, laid-back calmed voice returned, much to all the students' relief.

"Come on, it can't be that hard to remember a bird's anatomy after I've dissected twelve different birds this week."

A few students coughed and slowly, Maka and a few others walked over to his desk and put their papers on top of Ox Ford's.

Stein watched them all come and go, taking note that about eighty percent of the students got up to turn in their filled-in diagrams of the bird's insides. When they all returned to their desks and sat down again, Stein spoke once more. "All right. Class is over for the day. You're all dismissed."

-x-

"Seriously, Kid, you're going to fail this class if you don't start turning in your work."

Liz said to him, shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, not noticing the towering origami giraffe that stood right in front of him on the desk as Patty got on top of it and started wrestling with it. Liz was blowing on her nails while she held a bottle of nail polish in her free hand.

"In case you have forgotten, I don't need to take this course since I'm already a full-fledged Reaper and know all of this stuff anyway, courtesy of my father, Lord _Death_."

Liz nodded in admitted defeat, knowing beforehand that her statement would probably have no lasting effect and softly blew on her nails again before holding them out to Kid.

"Hey, are my nails symmetrically painted this time?" Kid quickly looked up at her to make sure she wasn't making fun of him, then looked down at them, bright pink and SO girly. Pink. _Pink_. Kid gulped and fought against certain erotic memories and fantasies from resurfacing in his memory. He held his hands out and wrapped them around the underside of hers, bending her fingers down to get a closer look at them. After a few seconds his eyes lit up, seeming to have stars in them as he oggled his partner's handiwork.

"Perfect!"

He grabbed Liz's other hand after she sat down her nail polish on the desk and held them side-by-side to compare them. His ecstatic voice rang out once again.

"Perfectly symmetrical! I'm in awe of the pure, symmetrical beauty! What wonderful work, Liz!" An elated tear came to the corner of Kid's eye and he wiped it away with a blissful sigh. Ah, all was right with the world.

-x-

Someone stared at the back of Kid's head from across the room after he turned to talk to Liz. They had been watching him all morning, sometimes looking at Stein instead, connecting the dots together. They knew something was happening, and they were both involved with it somehow. They yearned to learn more about it, to see Kid's eyes closely, if anything. They wanted to know more about this mystery.

-x-

Students started to pour down the stairs in droves, relieved to finally hear Stein's announcement and they talked quietly amongst themselves as they left the room. Stein caught a few bits of their conversations as they walked by, noticing how they were comparing this incident to previous ones and that they thought this one was the scariest of them all. Stein smiled.

Liz looked down at the opened doorway and all the kids leaving, and stood up, putting her nail polish in her pocket.

"Oh, class is finally over. Hey, you two, Maka and Soul asked me earlier in the hallway before class if we wanted to hang out with them today. You want to come with me?" Liz grabbed her hat off the desk, putting it on while she nodded her head toward both Patty and Kid.

"Okayyy~!" Patty said enthusiastically, putting a fist in the air after she beat her giraffe sculpture to a pulp. Poor thing, even if it had no soul that could be hurt.

Kid thought about it for a moment, remembering that fateful day that had passed by so many moons ago...

_Boobs._

Kid closed his eyes and almost facepalmed at the embarrassment.

The damn symmetrical beauty, he couldn't pry his eyes away from them. After that day he had the unofficial "Soul's pervert-buddy-in-training" sign slapped to his ass.

Courtesy of Maka.

Agh.

"You know Liz, I think I'll pass this time..." was what he was GOING to say, but a certain stitched man prevented a single word from actually leaving his lips.

"Kid, can you stay behind in the classroom for a moment? I want to speak to you about your grades in this class." Kid turned around in his seat and looked down at Stein, who was standing up near an end of his desk, holding the stack of student papers in his hands and trying to tap them together against the desk into a neat pile. A symmetrical stack. Kid almost smiled at that.

"Yes, Professor." Kid looked up at Liz and stood up, then turned around. "Sorry. Maybe some other time, after everyone forgets the last fiasco that occured while I was there. Namely _Maka_. But can you send them my regards? Thanks." Kid followed the flow of students down the stairs and stopped on the other side of Stein's desk. After Stein was done organizing the papers he made his way over to the Reaper, stopping in front of him after watching the rest of the students pour out of the classroom for a few seconds.

"Kid, I'm sure you know that it isn't really required of you to participate in this class, but I would appreciate it if you at least tried to learn something new while you're here. Surely you have some better way to occupy your time other than fretting over writing your name perfectly every day?"

Hearing this visibly bothered Kid. He held a closed hand up to his mouth, his thumb resting against his bottom lip while he sort of looked down and away in thought.

"But, my name is really important. If I can't even get _that_ right, then I'm _nothing_, a _no-good,_ _filthy piece of Reaper-scum garbage_..." Kid started ranting, his expression falling more and more as he lowered his head and body and nearly crawled down into a miserable ball on the floor at Stein's feet. But before Kid could entirely accomplish this feat, Stein grabbed one of his arms and pulled him back up, holding him in place.

"Soul Force," Stein murmured softly as he put his free palm against Kid's chest and a gold flash of energy pounded into his heart. Kid felt like he was struck by lightning as his soul was lobotomized, all previous thoughts about precision shocked out of his body. He groaned and slumped forward as he tried to get his bearings again. By now only a few students were still in the classroom and were making their way outside, while one of them turned their head to watch what was happening with visible interest.

Stein held Kid upright again with both hands until he felt him start to breathe again, raggedly as air rushed back into his lungs.

Pink hair moved across their face as they turned their head back around and left the room. Little did Kid or Stein know, that this person was watching them intently the whole class period. They seemed to know just a little _too_ much about what was going on.

-x-

"Seriously, Kid... name one part of a bird's body that isn't located on the _outside_."

"The... gizz...ard..." Kid groaned, feeling a buzzing headache pulsing at his temples.

"Good. And that's located in the stomach, correct?"

The door to the classroom closed, courtesy of the last student leaving. They were finally alone in the room. Stein gave Kid no time to answer before changing the subject completely.

"Hey."

Stein put his hand below Kid's chin and lifted it up to look at him, immediately lowering his head to look at him closely.

"Do your eyes still hurt?" the man asked as he examined Kid's face from a few different angles.

"N-no... but my head hurts after what you just did to me..."

Kid witnessed then with surprise perhaps the first time he's ever heard the doctor admit an apology.

"Sorry." he said softly, then he did something even more unexpected.

Stein leaned down and kissed Kid.

A few seconds passed before Kid realized what was happening and he tilted his head away, breaking off their contact with a slight smacking sound. He squinted his eyes, almost shutting them completely as he fought against letting Stein's Soul Wavelength tune to the right frequency to be compatible with his. He struggled with it, his body twitching as Stein's wavelength tried to worm its way into Kid's personal barrier and sanctuary, corrupting Kid's white mansion with Stein's golden... love?

What?

Kid was caught entirely off guard, his senses being flooded with this unknown, foreign lake swallowing everything inside his heart. He was paralyzed by the warm feeling of it. Stein smiled down at him, knowing his opportunity had come.

He leaned his head down again and moved Kid's head to meet his in a deep, open-mouthed kiss this time. Suddenly Kid's eyes went wide and became pupil-less as he yelled into Stein's mouth, the blue flames from his soul reaching outside of his body and encircling around both him and Stein. Stein's gold wavelength pressed and rubbed against his between them until it finally broke through and they melded together, becoming one strengthened, larger entity as Stein's soul color turned to the same hue of blue to match his.

He was finally in.


	3. Succumbing to Madness

Crona felt a strange chill coming from behind her in the hallway, and it quickly rushed through past her. She held one of her arms with a hand and shivered.

"What was that, Ragnarok?"

Crona felt the muscles in her back vibrate as the demon inside her sprouted out. He loomed over her and looked at her upside-down.

"There's a presence of very powerful souls nearby, Crona. Could you do me a favor and let me swallow them up? It would make us even _more_ powerful and we'll become totally unstoppable!"

Crona looked up at him with fright in her eyes, and she fidgeted nervously, finally turning to look around the corner of the hallway back toward the classroom.

"But whose souls are they?"

That ignorant question earned her a knuckle sandwich on the side of her head from Ragnarok.

"Who do you think, dummy? It's coming from the classroom! What do ya' say, Crona... just take my sword and cut 'em down for me so I can get stronger, so WE can get stronger... heh heh..."

A dark aura emanated from Ragnarok, and he slowly transformed himself into his sword form, black flames scattering around and reforming themselves into it. His body completely disappeared from inside her back and became the static object in her hand, purple and black energy pulsating around the devil object. Crona soon became enveloped in the energy as well, and she hung her head low, passively trying to resist the temptation of succumbing to his will and power.

"B-but Ragnarok... those people are my friends. I can't kill them..." she said softly, without confidence. She knew he would yell at her again.

And he did.

"Arrghh... Crona, _move your legs_. _Greeeat_. Now, just turn around and head back to the classroom... We can finally become a Kishin and be the strongest being there is...!"

Crona still attempted to resist the devil's whisper into her soul, but for some reason she couldn't. She couldn't force him back into her body and lock him away this time. And when he came out of her body a few moments ago, he seemed bigger than he used to be after he shrank down to Mini-Ragnarok size. It's like Madness was feeding him once again, making him stronger.

But the Madness wasn't coming from Crona.

So where was it coming from?

-x-

"Kid, you've done well."

Kid blinked and looked up. They were standing next to a lake, with sunlight around them so bright it seemed white, reflecting off the surface of the water into his eyes. He squinted as he tried to look at Stein.

"What?"

Stein chuckled and kissed the top of Kid's head, wrapping his arms around Kid's waist and holding him close.

"I have enough for five shots now. But the problem is... I've become addicted to them."

Kid tried again to look at Stein's face, tilting his head somewhat. It was difficult to see his expression because of the golden ambient light shining down on their faces.

"There's side-effects? You told me there wasn't."

Stein held him closer, nuzzling his face against Kid's hair.

"Well, _there wasn't_. At first. But..."

Stein looked down out of the corner of his eyes at his soul's lake, which seemed clear at the moment. It took three whole days to clean and purify it again after the last time they synchronized when under the stress of Madness, and the shot he took afterward in his lab finally silenced that incessant static that was in the _other_ part of his soul...

The _bad part._

"Lately when I've been injecting myself..."

Suddenly, there was a clanging sound and everything around Kid dissolved to white.

-x-

Kid pulled away from Stein, his consciousness back in the classroom.

"What did you just do?"

Stein lowered his eyelids down at him and rose his eyebrows. It only took a few moments for Kid to notice he was turning the screw in his head. After a full, single rotation, it clicked more noticably than the other clicks and he stopped moving it.

"I kicked you out of my soul."

"But why-" Kid started to say, when he heard a knocking at the door and turned toward it, startled.

"_That's_ why. Someone's been at the door waiting for me to answer it for the past ten seconds. I had to wall off my soul to you, while in the meantime I talk to them and see what they want."

What Stein _didn't_ add to that, was immediately before Kid was expelled from his soul, something was happening in that lake. Something he didn't want Kid to see.

-x-

There was a few more knocks before Stein made his way to the door and opened it.

"Oh, Sid. The bird's on the table, like always."

Stein motioned a hand behind him. Sid nodded and walked into the room, carrying a box in his hand. He looked surprised to see a student in Stein's classroom at this hour. Sid looked at him curiously as he walked past him towards Stein's desk.

"Hi, Kid. Strange to see _you_ of all people here. Usually it's Black Star. You better not be in trouble, or I'll start to lose faith in the student body."

Kid blinked and wasn't sure really what to say. Stein sensed his soul quivering and spoke up for him. While he did so, he put a hand in his pocket and took a pack of cigarettes out, fumbling with the contents until he managed to light one and put it in his mouth.

"Of course not. Sid, he's the one I was telling you about. Kid's been very helpful in my research."

Sid stood stock-still for a second, shocked by the fact that his devious co-worker uttered 'Kid' and _'research'_ in the same sentence. He tried not to look at either of them while he bent over the desk and started to package up the dead bird, wrapping it up in a newspaper that he took out from inside the box.

"Surely you're not trying to create some type of hybrid Reaper-Zombie; one Zombie in this school is enough as it is... Or whatever you were trying to accomplish with Spirit all those years ago... Basically, I have no idea what you're up to, Stein."

Sid finished wrapping up the bird and put it in the box, closing the lid over it afterward. Stein idly puffed smoke into the air while looking up at it, not really paying attention to anybody.

"It probably should stay that way. Thanks for taking the bird with you."

"Yeah, no problem." Sid looked at Kid again when he walked by him, this time as he headed toward the door. He patted the box with a hand. "A hearty meal for a Zombie. See you two later."

As he passed by Stein and out the door however, he muttered something lowly that he knew the doctor would be very irate to hear.

"No funny business with Kid. I got my eye on you; if anything happens to him, Lord Death will know."

Sid closed the door behind him as he left.

Stein lowered his head and couldn't help a low chuckle from rumbling through his throat.

"Trying to keep _me _from being able to experiment...? You should know all too well what happened to you when you did that the _last _time, Sid."

-x-

"Hey, Crona."

"Oh! H-hi, Professor Sid."

Sid looked strangely at her when they passed by each other in the hall. "It sounds weird to call me Professor. Just call me Sid. In the past I may have been called one, when I was human..."

Crona fidgeted nervously, one of her arms hiding behind her back. Secretly Ragnarok was flowing back inside her body, unnoticed by Sid. Her free hand was held up to her mouth to emphasize her uneasiness.

"Okay... Sid. Wh-what's in that box?"

Sid laughed. "You really wanna know?" Crona's eyes widened and she had a scared expression on her face. Sid shook his head good-humoredly, chuckling again.

"Relax. It's just that bird I'm sure Professor Stein made a good show about dissecting in class earlier. Speaking of which, how come so many of his students are still sticking around today? First Kid, and now I find you roaming around in the halls... it's so unusual, if I may say so."

Crona's expression became surprised, and then slowly brightened up. She smiled meekly, less fidgety than before.

"K-Kid's here still?" Crona's hidden arm returned to her side, the sword finally diminished from sight.

"Yeah, he is. You can talk to him if you want, but you probably have to go through Stein first."

Sid laughed darkly as he walked around Crona, leaving her alone in the hall. When he finally disappeared around the corner and was out of earshot, Ragnarok popped out of her back again, angrily pinching and pulling Crona's cheeks when she tried to speak out in protest.

"Stop it!"

Finally, he stopped tugging and looked at her when he became bored of her whining and fussing. She rubbed her reddened cheeks and looked at him in annoyance.

"...See, Ragnarok? They're my friends! It's... it's Professor Stein and Kid in the classroom! And you know I can't beat either of them... r-remember how much it hurt last time? And they're together, so it will be even harder to defeat them..."

"_Yeaaah_, Crona. But I feel different this time. I feel so _powerful _now, _look at me_!"

Crona took a step back as Ragnarok suddenly grew in size again, this time right before her eyes. He almost came up to the ceiling now and a bloodthirsty haze emanated from his body, black and morbid.

"B-but how?! You haven't grown this big since..."

Ragnarok chortled cruelly. If he could grin now it would certainly look demonic.

"That's _riiiight_, dear Crona... I feel Madness flowing into me, continuously making me stronger, even though I haven't consumed any souls! It feels _wonderful_, and it makes my thirst for blood so much _stronger_... Come on Crona, _you know_ you can feel it too..."

"I..." Crona seemed in a daze, her neck and body bending backward as Ragnarok transformed himself into his sword form again. He almost fell out of her hand, as she barely held onto the hilt. She was caught in a trance and soon enveloped by a rush of foreign red energy crushing against her body and soul. Soon, she would be his puppet again, just like old times.

-x-

"Professor, what exactly did you tell Sid?" Kid asked, sounding half-accusatory and half worried. He watched Stein wipe down his desk with a disinfectant cloth, cigarette haphazardly dangling out of his mouth.

"About what?" Stein replied simply, with barely any emotion. He really knew what Kid was getting at, but didn't feel like indulging him at the moment. He didn't have the energy. Kid suddenly felt anger boiling up in his stomach.

"You know what I mean! Don't play dumb." He felt even more agitated when Stein sat on a corner of the desk and dropped the cloth into the trash can, almost ignoring Kid entirely. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew out a long, slow puff of smoke before he ever bothered to reply.

"Well, unlike my other experiments on people around the school, this time it affects a wider scope of people than just _me _and the _test subject_."

Kid gave the doctor a weird look, and wasn't sure of what to say to that. Sure, he could accept this explanation, but why was Stein acting so weird all of a sudden...? He didn't understand why he was acting so hot-headed himself, either. They were feeding off each other's agitation when it wasn't there a second ago...

Stein closed his eyes and held the cigarette between two fingers, removing it from his mouth again. He rested his palm against the edge of the desk and leaned forward slightly.

"Kid, I'm not the only one easily affected by Madness. There are students in this school who also easily fall under its influence. Lately... it's been harder to have total control over my soul chemistry. And it's because of you."

Kid's eyes widened. Stein started to rotate his screw again, and seemed like he was concentrating on something, tilting his head to the side while his eyes were still closed. Is this why Kid felt this unexplainable wave of anger rush through him? It had something to do with _him_?

"Kid, I told Sid... that if something bad happens, it's my fault. Not just to me or you. I mean _everybody_, and anybody. Suddenly other students can become infected, if what I'm fearing is truly happening. I've been feeling students' emotions the past few days, in a weird, unwanted way. If they're angry, I'm angry. If they're scared, I feel still more agitated. I'm absorbing their emotions when I don't need to, then unwittingly syncronizing with all the others around me, passing all _their _emotions around like the plague. I'm starting to lose myself again... that lake I showed you..."

Stein trailed off and his voice became strained and raspy, the final click in his second rotation ringing out. Now he had a full three rotations to his record since he rotated it in class earlier. Now...

-x-

"...Professor Stein?"

He stood still with his back to Kid, looking straight down at a mass of purple and black, that used to be the lake.

Now, it was just sludge, unmoving and poisonous.

Just like old times.


End file.
